The uYilo Electric Mobility Programme has opened the grant funding call for its 2019 Kick Start Fund Project.

uYilo was established in 2013 as an initiative of the Technology Innovation Agency, with the aim to enable, facilitate and mobilise electric mobility (emobility) in South Africa.

UYilo says its 2019 Kick Start Fund Project can unlock up to R1-million in funding for candidates who are developing a technology that can advance the emobility industry in South Africa.

The funding call is aimed at improving “local technology supply chain development of the electric vehicle (EV) industry value chain”.

“If you have the right strategic focus areas and technology readiness level, applying for uYilo Kick Start funding could help your project get to market,” says uYilo.

It adds that the grant funding aims to support emobility-related projects in terms of the applied research and development of individual and collaborative projects, for which 50:50 cofunding is required. The funding call is open to all participants within the emobility innovation value chain, with priority given to projects in uYilo’s strategic focus areas (namely energy storage technologies, EV systems, charging infrastructure within smart grids and the connected car), as well as industry projects that will lead to the local manufacture of a product or service, or which will support public transportation.
uYilo Kick Start Fund project beneficiaries to date include QBSoft EVBackoffice (EV charge point back office system); Battery Power Industries (18650 cylindrical cell battery pack module); Ubun2Tech (four-wheel RE-Link1 electric trailer); IET Solar (electromobility and residential storage integration); Intelligent Machines (induction motors and controllers for kinetic energy recovery); Microcare (50 kW three-phase DC EV fast charger); PowerMote (4 × 4 utility vehicle); Stellenbosch University (intelligent battery management system, charger and drive system); MLT Inverters (upgrade of the Karoo70 for second-life EV battery applications); EWIZZ (development of core EV management system, unit and cloud); University of Western Cape (lithium-ion mining vehicle battery pack); PowerMote (utility vehicle motor and controller) and GridCars (OCPP charge point and server).

All supporting information and documentation are available on the uYilo website funding call – www.uyilo.org.za/uYilo-Kick-Start-Fund.

The deadline for submissions is midday November 15.